6/7/04

Autistic Savant: Unexpected Genius KIm Peek Leslie Lempke

Autistic Savant: Two Seconds to Discover Prime Numbers Two Years To Learn to Ride the Bus

What Number Times What Number Gives 1234567890

NASA is Studying A Well Known Autistic Savant

What number multiplied by what number gives 1234567890? Take 30 seconds and find the answer. Take a minute if you want. Good Luck. Joseph Sullivan of Huntington, West Virginia could give the answer instantly. This was a bit faster than the time it took him to learn to ride the bus in his town, that took him two years. Joseph Sullivan is a very rare individual. Joseph Sullivan is an autistic savant.
So is Kim Peek see

Autistic savants are members of a rare group of individuals who have autisim and yet have certain remarkable extraordinary mental abilities that seem to be far beyond the ken of most people. See The Key to Genius. Joseph Sullivan was one of three people whom Dustin Hoffman met as he prepared for his role in the movie Rain Man. Another was Kim Peek (see below).

Savant Syndrome: Frequently Asked Questions

The Making of Rain Man: Dustin Hoffman Portrays an Autistic Savant

Dustin Hoffman met several savants while he was preparing for his role in Rain Man, among them Kim Peek, " a walking encyclopedia..who can recite the highways that go to each American city, town or county, along with the area and zip codes, television stations amd telephone networks that serve them" See Islands of Genius in Scientific American and Kim Peek-The Real Rain Man

A Movie About A Concert Pianist Who Goes Deaf Uncovers a Genius

One Sunday night in the 1960's a rural Wisconsin family living on the edge of Lake Pewaukee sat down to watch a film. The film, "Sincerely Yours" starred Liberace "as a famed pianist who, on the night of his big concert at Carnegie Hall, goes deaf". The film deals with the eventual triumph of Liberace over his deafness. See the review at Sincerely Yours. In one of those ironies of life, little did the film's producers realize that "Sincerely Yours"would uncover of a real medical miracle.

The rural Wisconsin family had, that Sunday night, apparently thoroughly enjoyed the cimematic tear jerker and had gone to sleep. Sometime in the early hours of Monday, the mother of the family was awakened by the sound of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1. Thinking that she had somehow inadvertently left the TV on, she went to turn it off. As she came in to turn off the TV she was startled to find that the music was not from the TV at all but it was her son Leslie playing the piano. Quite remarkable when you think about it. Here was a boy of 14 who had never taken piano lessons and couldn't read music playing a classic music piece flawlessly. Pretty amazing! But even more so because it turns out that Leslie Lemke, that 14 year old boy, had never even seen a piano because he has been blind and had brain damage since he was a baby. According to an article in the Duluth News Tribune, Lemke who gave a concert in October, 2003 at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center has "cerebral palsy, blindness and only minimal cognitive abilities"

Alonzo Clemons is another person with incredible skills."As a child, Alonzo Clemons demonstrated the uncanny ability to mold clay into amazingly detailed animal figures he had never even seen. It was talent that only a genius could possess. But it was puzzling: Alonzo couldn't even feed himself or tie his shoes." "Alonzo can see a fleeting image on a television screen of any animal, and in less than 20 minutes sculpt a perfect replica of that animal in three-dimensional accuracy." See Genius Among Us: Alonzo Clemons

Radio Program on Autistic Savants

Scientists Still Don't Know How or Why Autistic Savants Have These Remarkable Abilities

Speculation That Everybody Has Remarkable Ability But Only Savants Can Access the Ability

According to Dr. Darold A. Treffert who has been studying savants for decades,"Savant Syndrome is a rare but spectacular condition in which people with various developmental disablities, including Autistic Disorder, have astonishing islands of ability or brilliance". See The Savant Syndrome: Islands of Genius.

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